Chat platform Zumbl set up by IIT-Delhi students goes off beta

Zumbl, a platform built by three IIT Delhi students that enables members to chat with strangers having similar interests and passions, has gone off beta garnering over 3,000 users, according to a top executive of the company.

The Delhi-based chat platform run by Zumbl Pvt Ltd is now looking to reach 10,000 users by November end and targets one million members in six months, said Utkarsh Ohm, COO, Zumbl.

How it works

A user needs to login into Zumbl using his Google or Facebook ID and enter the columns appearing on the screen with his interests, hobbies, etc. "Zumbl matches you to strangers who share common interests with you. During the chat, both parties can tag each other with tags like nerdy, sassy, funny etc and if you chat responsibly, we will decorate your avatar with badges to avoid profanity and reduce the number of fake profiles," said Ohm.

Zumbl also uses 'sentiment mining' technology to detect the mood of members from the chats and reflect the same in form of animation of their avatar. The startup claimed that it is easy sharing one's interests with others, as he/she needs to just enclose anything they wish to share in '< >'. For instance, if one enters '<wall climbing>' the phrase is indexed and the relevant media/videos from the web are shared immediately with the chatmate.

Ohm claimed that a leading VC investor has expressed interest to invest in his company. "But we have enough cash to survive and are not ready for institutional funding yet."

Founded in 2011 by IIT Delhi students Abhishek Gupta, Devashish Tyagi, Ohm, the company was incubated at Digital Media Zone in Toronto and recently won Samsung Innovation Award 2012.

(Edited by Prem Udayabhanu)